One of the most useful accessories a woman can have is a Scarf. Unfortunately, unless you have the fashion flair to use the right style, your scarf can spell utter disaster. Actually, it’s not all about keeping up with the trends, although watching fashion shows do help you to keep up with scarf fashion. However, your scarf style should really be more focused on how well you can play with lines, colors, and shapes.

There are a lot of ways for you to use a scarf. You can use it as a head wrap, a bag accessory, a belt, a body wrap, a tiny skirt to wear over your swimsuit, a ponytail holder, or something to drape around your neck so you can emphasize the best features of your face. The tips below should give you an idea on how to use scarfs as clothing accessories.

Wearing a scarf according to facial shape

Did you know that there are actually rules you should follow if you want to bring out the best of your face with a scarf? These aren’t strict rules, but some scarf styles just look better on one person than others. Here are your common face shapes and the scarf styles that go well with them.

1. Round face: You have a round face when you have full cheeks and the widest part of your face is at your cheeks and ears. Your face should also have no sharp angles. For a person with a round face, the scarf style should give a slimming effect. You can do this by draping a scarf from the neck to create the illusion of length. You can also try tying a knot midway from the neck to draw the eye downward. 2. Oval face: The oval face is considered on the most proportionate facial shapes there are. You’re very lucky if you have an oval face. If you think your facial shape is an oval, pay attention to your forehead. You should have a narrow forehead, and your face should be wider at the cheekbones. It should then taper slightly to your chin. For this facial shape, you can wear any scarf style you want. 3. Square face: You have a square face if the width of your forehead is almost equal to the widths of your cheekbone and jaw line. While this type of face photographs well, you would want to soften the edges to look more feminine. Long scarfs that fall freely from your neck will work well for you. 4. Oblong face: You have an oblong face if your face is as sharp as a square face but it’s longer than wider. This would also mean that you have a very narrow face, and you would want it to appear flatter to balance things out. To do this, you should keep a scarf wrapped around your neck without letting the edges fall down. 5. Heart-shaped face: This facial shape is also called the “upside down pear”. You have this facial shape when you have wide cheekbones and a narrow jawline. If you have this facial shape, you would want to create the illusion that your jawline is wider than it is. As with someone with an oblong face, thick layers of scarf around your neck will look great on you.

Wearing your scarf on your body

Scarfs aren’t just great accessories during the cold weather. They’re also great fashion accessories to wear around the beach. Here are ways for you to use scarfs to complement your swim wear.

1. Halter blouse-effect. You can do this by pinching a medium-length scarf in the middle. Tie a knot where you’ve pinched the scarf. Then, hold the scarf by its two upper corners. Tie these corners together around your neck. Just make sure that you don’t tie the scarf too closely around the neckline. You would want to create a loose, rippled effect in front. Then, tie the bottom corners around your neck. And there you have it, you have an instant top to wear while you’re not in the water. 2. If you’re wearing a bikini and you would want to show off more flesh, you can also just wear the scarf around your waist. Fold a medium to large scarf in half so that you can create a triangle. Then, tie two corners of the triangle around your waist. You can control the length by folding the scarf up on the side of the triangle that you’re tying around your waist.3. Full body-wrap. You can also wear a scarf as a full body-wrap especially if it has intricate prints which can be wasted if you simply fold it. You need a very big scarf here, and all you have to do is to wrap it around your body and tuck in the end or use a brooch to fix it in place. A brooch is a good scarf accessory.

Other ways to use a scarf

Celebrities Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie made scarfs popular again when they made use of them as headbands. This is a chic way for you to get away with plain white tees and denim pants. It’s very 50s without looking to retro you look like you’re going to a costume party.

Scarfs are also great belts. Gone were the days when people expected you to sport only leather belts. Now you can play with your scarf print and accessorize that white dress you’ve been meaning to wear, only you thought it was too boring. Black scarfs are also great accessories for black dresses. They will give your simple black dress a new flair.

Scarf color coordination

Aside from the folding styles, you also have to think about color coordination when you use scarfs as accessories. The rule of the thumb is not to mix prints if you’re using scarfs with prints. If your dress already has a pattern on it, it’s best if you used a plain scarf of the same color.

Playing with neutral tones is pretty safe. You can play around with brown and white, black and white, white on white, brown on darker brown or vice versa and so on. Don’t wear light colored scarfs as belts if you think they make your waist or hips appear wider. Darker scarfs on lighter clothing colors are always the better choices.

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